Current Sharing Information on Progress Report Submission

Sharing Information on Progress (2016)

The Faculty of Business and Law at Manchester Metropolitan University is proud to affirm our commitment to Responsible Management Education and the six PRME principles. This report provides an overview of the Faculty’s progress on further development of the six principles over the past two years, and illustrates our passion, work and plans for the next reporting period. Indeed, we have redeveloped our mission and our vision to reflect those objectives.

Sharing Information on Progress (2014)

Highlights of this report include our award winning building, our nomination as No1 Greenest University by the People and Planet League, the launch of our Sustainable and Ethical Enterprise Group by Jonathon Porritt and the recognition of our Centre for Enterprise as a Centre of Excellence by the Institute of Enterprise and Entrpreneurs. We have also initiated a series of lectures delivered to all our new undergraduates introducing them to Responsible Management, Ethics and Sustainability.

Sharing Information on Progress (2012)

The Faculty of Business and Law at Manchester Metropolitan University is proud to affirm our commitment to Responsible Management Education and the six PRME principles. This report provides an overview of the Faculty’s progress on further development of the six principles over the past two years, and illustrates our passion, work and plans for the next reporting period. Indeed, we have redeveloped our mission and our vision to reflect those objectives.

Achievements Curriculum Integration in the Field of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability

We are currently implementing a university wide academic change initiative, Enhancing Quality and Assessment for Learning. As part of this initiative we are redesigning all our undergraduate degree programmes. An integral requirement of each new programme is “Throughout the programme students are encouraged to develop and articulate an awareness of the environmental, social and community contexts within their discipline”. This is to be achieved by, for example, embedding a community-based project, or using examples throughout the curriculum demonstrating these contexts.

It is also intended to incorporate at least one unit with an explicit focus on responsible management in each programme. To this end we have developed a number of units that are explicitly linked to the Responsible Manager agenda, ie The Responsible Marketer, The Responsible Accountant and Responsible Business. Each of these units covers aspects of ethics, corporate social responsibility and sustainability.

At postgraduate level we offer a variety of units as core and/or elective modules. Our accounting and finance students can elect Accounting, Society and the Environment, more general business students may choose Sustainable Business and HR students have access to several units incorporating ethics, eg Ethics, Justice and Equality and Leadership Ethics.

We also have a new MSc in Sustainable Business which we run in partnership with the MMU School of Science and the Environment. Students from the business school study at least two of their modules in the School of Science and the Environment and students from that school undertaking the same degree study at least two of their modules at the business school.

Finally we have a staff interest group called the C4SL Forum which is keen on developing sustainability in the curriculum. (C4SL is an acronym for Curriculum for Sustainable Living). There are representatives from each division in this group and they have set up a website to highlight sustainability and related issues, and to offer encouragement to students and staff. This website includes various resources and useful links. The members of the group also offer guest lectures to other courses in their division.

Achievements Research Development in the Field of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability

We have several strands of research at the business school that are linked to the responsible management agenda. Business ethics research began in 1990 and numerous articles have been published in UK and European journals as well as book chapters and a book Corporate Governance and Accountability. Sustainability research also started in the 1990s and has produced several articles and book chapters. Currently the main foci of research in this area are the green entrepreneur and entrepreneur education for sustainable development. There is also a line of research interested in CSR in Russia.

Over the last ten years we have also had an interest in Social Enterprise and a textbook Social Enterprise – Theory and Practice is about to be published. More recently research has begun into Sustainable Supply Chains, Environmental Accounting and Business/NGO Partnerships. A number of papers have been presented to conferences and submitted to UK and International journals for consideration.

As evidenced by our interest in Social Enterprise, we are keen to be involved with third sector organizations and have links with several. At present we are working with Community Catalysts on social return on investment, Groundwork UK to develop an ethical base for businesses delivering community-based services and Act4Africa to develop leadership programmes for large firms operating in Uganda. We are also involved with business organizations, for example we are currently evaluating Marks & Spencer’s Plan A.

Other businesses we work with include Tesco, Booths and The Southern Co-op. We deliver our foundation degree in retailing to their staff, this includes a CSR element. We also accredit the McDonald’s Business Management foundation degree and this too includes a CSR component.